Resto Shaman changes hinted
by Eliah Hecht 
Jun 17th 2009 at 3:00PM
Shaman news part two: revenge of Shaman news! You may still be reeling from the revamp to the totem interface announced earlier today, but Ghostcrawler presses on. In a thread bemoaning the current state of Resto Shamans, he pre-announced the following changes for patch 3.2:
- Healing Way changed to "work better" with Healing Wave.
- Improved Water Shield will also work with Chain Heal, and IWS procs will not consume a Water Shield orb.
- Nature's Swiftness cooldown reduced to two minutes "so you can HW more often."
The crab says they'll try to make a more comprehensive list of Resto changes soon. Class changes lists, you say? Is that a PTR I see on the horizon?
Patch 3.2 will bring about a new 5, 10, and 25 man instance to WoW, and usher in a new 40-man battleground called the Isle of Conquest. WoW.com will have you covered every step of the way, from extensive PTR coverage through the official live release. Check out WoW.com's Guide to Patch 3.2 for all the latest!
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
poggg Jun 17th 2009 3:05PM
I like where this is going.
Sorcefire Jun 17th 2009 3:12PM
Most definitely good things for Resto shamans. In fact, with the prevalence of burst damage, long cast heals are antiquated mechanics that need to be retired in favor of more instant or quick cast big heals. Watching a tank dip to 15-20% health with every hit of a boss is just silly.
Chad Jun 17th 2009 3:15PM
I was hoping Chain Heal would be changed to an instant cast ability with a few seconds cool down. Still, these look like good changes and more could be announced.
Zul Jun 17th 2009 4:49PM
I would be pissed off if that happens. I love spamming chain heal on occasion, and thats a huge mechanic of our class. Also if chain heal was instant and on a CD, it would be even worse compared to other AoE healing spells. It would be down right garbage. If that happens I would finally reroll, after four long year as a raiding resto shaman.
Qot Jun 17th 2009 3:17PM
Good changes, even if I find the logic behind the NS change odd. Healing Wave is so broken people usually only use it with a NS macro, so... they'll reduce the cooldown on NS? To fix HW?
I'm cautious about getting excited for the changes, though, after the "we're merging healing stream and mana tide!" debacle where the final result was a shaman regen nerf (no more mana spring + BoW).
Zasziden Jun 17th 2009 3:25PM
"Improved Water Shield will also work with Chain Heal, and IWS procs will not consume a Water Shield orb."
I approve. Savings on GCDs spent refreshing will help quite a bit.
Riptide's in a good place, as are LHW and CH... I don't know as reducing the cooldown on NS is really the way to make us look at HW again. Healing Way is going to have to wow me to get me to use it with any regularity.
Robert M Jun 17th 2009 4:29PM
Does this mean druids are getting a reduced cooldown on their NS?
Am I the only one who feels that Healing Touch and Healing Wave are in similar boats? Do they ever get used anymore? Reducing the cooldown on NS provides little incentive to increase HW/HT use imo.
Mordockk Jun 17th 2009 3:40PM
Should I spec resto right when I get to Northrend? Or wait till I ding 80. I was thinking probably waiting until level 75 and just run instances until 80. That way I'll have some decent gear to heal for heroics.
Mordockk Jun 17th 2009 3:41PM
either way, droppin 4 totems in one GCD is going to be badass! fear my small glowing stumps!
johnthediver Jun 17th 2009 4:12PM
I healed enhancement all the way to 80. If you are proactive enough you can heal anyting up to endgame as enhancement, dual earthliving weapon FTW! Just make sure you have a healing set with plenty of SP and MP5. Or just drop the grand on dual specs and go elemental/resto so you only need to keep 1 set of gear.
skraps
www.sham-wows.blogspot.com
neillium Jun 17th 2009 4:59PM
I leveled as Enhancement all the way up to 80 and waited to dual-spec as Resto. Once you get to 75-ish is when you should start collecting healing gear. While the gear may not be spectacular, it will be something to start with. Run some regular dungeons, get better gear as a healer, move on to heroics...etc! Next thing you know, you'll have a decent set!
This many not be the best method for everyone, this is what i did!
Cataca Jun 17th 2009 3:42PM
"Improved Water Shield will also work with Chain Heal, and IWS procs will not consume a Water Shield orb"
Does that mean that we'll get the effect on every crit of chain heal or will it be capped with a "this effect can not proc more than once every (insert # here) seconds"
I'm sensing more changes coming for CH >.
johnthediver Jun 17th 2009 4:16PM
Am I the only resto shaman that doesn't feel Resto is broken? I feel like I'm in a pretty good place. I main heal naxx 10 pretty regularly, and OT heal/raid heal Naxx 25 often too.
I never had a problem with Healing Wave, with haste it is under a 2 second cans and with crits it heals for up to 16k, then there is all the other proc benifits like Anstral Awakening the armor buff etc.
What am I missing?
Skraps
www.sham-wows.blogspot.com
Cyanea Jun 17th 2009 4:32PM
I too don't see the big deal regarding Healing Wave and how horrible it's supposed to be. I tend to use it as much if not more than LHW and do quite fine for myself in raids.
Robert M Jun 17th 2009 4:35PM
It's not Naxx that's the problem from what I have seen. It's all the movement in Ulduar that is killing both elemental and resto shaman output.
The most recent blue post where shaman were called turrets who needed to stand still and spin up dps or heals is the problem that these changes are likely trying to address.
Cataca Jun 17th 2009 5:46PM
The problem with HW is...
1. It has a long cast time (yeah with haste you can get it pretty fast but still)
2. It heals for a lot. Most of that heal will be over healing if your trying to keep your tank topped off all the time.
3. Because of it's mana cost its pretty hard to spam without uber regen. So you use it situational, woven with other heals. But it can sometimes be hard to know when to use it. Try to anticipate a large damage spike and you get it too early, you just wasted you mana on over healing. Get it too late, your tank just died because you were casting for 2+ seconds.
4. LHW + glyph of LHW is flexible. Like you say, you can get a 16k heal with HW that takes you 2+ seconds to cast. You can also get a 10k crit with LHW with a 1+ second cast. So if you do the math, in 2 seconds you can get around 16k with HW or 20k with LHW and still have the option of not wasting your mana on 10k worth of healing if you need to.
5. The talent healing way used to be crap. It's better now, but still a talent that buffs a little used spell.
All in all, using HW as your main heal can be done, and done successfully. If you like it, do it. But there are other options.
Cataca Jun 17th 2009 5:54PM
Forgot to say...
All of those buffs you mentioned, you also get with LHW and more often because your casting faster.
And to those that say that HW is more efficient that LHW are remembering Pre-Wrath stuff. Pre-Wrath, HW was hands down the best heal to use if you only had one target. LHW was never used, you just didn't need a small clutch heal to save anyone.
Brad Jun 18th 2009 9:21AM
If I'm MT healing, my strategy is Riptide >> HW, HW. This way you're getting a HW cast at less than 2 seconds. In my case if I do the same thing with LHW, it's under the GCD (a Tidal Waves LHW for me is ~0.93 seconds) and I have to wait anyway. I think this means of reducing the cast time is a good start. As far as the changes in here, I'm really looking forward to IWS not consuming orbs. That is the whole reason I skipped the talent in the first place because who wants to take a talent that just makes you spend GCDs on refreshing WS all the time.
elitebrute Jun 18th 2009 2:15PM
ok... pop quiz if you are spec'd correctly... When you use riptide or chain heal you get 30% reduced cast time on your 2.5 second spell if you drop wrath of air totem that's an additional 5% cast time off... 35% passively through your tree and one totem that you will nine times out of ten be dropping or another shaman in your group will... Where's the problem? with gear and built in haste if you are talking about ulduar you will probably have abotu 10% haste through gear if not a hair more? so... it takes you about 1.5 seconds to cast that healing wave that heals for an extra 36% through your tree! Coming from a resto shammy who is mostly naxx ten geared with 2 or 3 pieces of naxx 25... my Mp5 is fine... and I get healing wave crits of 15k plus that only take 1.5 seconds to cast... Why is it so hard to have to think ahead... granted I play wack-o-mole with healbot to but there is a method to the madness not just OMG he needs a heal! It's a little bit of planning to be mana efficient and speed efficient...
johnthediver Jun 18th 2009 2:25PM
@elitebrute
You know after reading your post I took a look at my haste, unbuffed it is 14.5%. that drops my HW spell down to 1.375 seconds, well below the GCD. Again I say, where is the resto problem? I admit I have only done the first 4 fights in Ulduar, but I have a hard time believing we can not stand still for less than 1.5 seconds to heal effectively.
Now I don't play a pally, but I thought their heals were even bigger, with longer cast times. Would they not be just as hamstrung as shammys are?
Skraps
www.sham-wows.blogspot.com